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Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

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Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#71

Post by 0xdeadb00f »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #32

There's a very strong reaction here from users, but overall if more software became snap-only (or FlatPak-only, or anything-only), it would solve one of Linux's biggest pain points as a software developer. MSI on Windows is completely fucked, PKG on Mac has a few footguns, but at least they're universal, decades-old standards supported by mature tooling. You release an MSI/PKG, and you're done. Works on every Windows…

Okay but snap sucks. I don't want it. I never asked for it.

This is why my daily driver isn't Ubuntu (or Debain, because I also hate apt - it also sucks).

Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#72

Post by kaba0 »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #32

There's a very strong reaction here from users, but overall if more software became snap-only (or FlatPak-only, or anything-only), it would solve one of Linux's biggest pain points as a software developer. MSI on Windows is completely fucked, PKG on Mac has a few footguns, but at least they're universal, decades-old standards supported by mature tooling. You release an MSI/PKG, and you're done. Works on every Windows…

The thing is, none of the mainstream package formats solve the underlying problem, they just push it to a different layer.

I know what I’m saying can be regarded as “+1 different standards”, but Nix is the only truly novel approach to package management that can reliably install a huge-ass behemoth package group like Gnome, install Plasma next to it and remove both without a single garbage file laying around afterwards.

I think we really should embrace this uniquely good solution.

Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#73

Post by watchdogtimer »

nicolaslem wrote: post #4

For me the best way to run Firefox on Debian based system is to download the compiled tar and extract it somewhere in my home dir. This way I get update through Firefox itself (like on Windows/MacOS).

Unfortunately, I don't think this is an option on aarch64 Linux.

Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#74

Post by kaba0 »

anotherhue wrote: post #61
jsilence wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. Strongly eyeing NixOS and patiently awaiting real work experience from a co-worker who already did the plunge.

It is to operating systems what automatic memory management was to programming. Irrefutably needed.

The analogy is even more apt due to nix basically having a garbage collector (packages no longer available from any installed package, profile)

Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#76

Post by tapia »

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #66
philliphaydon wrote: post #12

I don’t think I’ll ever use ubuntu again. The continued forcing of snap is killing it for me.

I installed Ubuntu a few weeks ago at work because most people use it and there is some existing infrastructure around it (mostly for the target platforms, but could also be for dev machines). I have to say that coming from Arch, it's a very Windowsy experience: lots of software has to be installed by searching for "install XYZ on Ubuntu", and following some instructions that involve scary-looking command lines that…

I also come from Archlinux. A few months ago I discovered the mpr repository [1]. It is essentially the same as the AUR bit for Ubuntu. The syntax is also the same as the AUR packages, so it is super easy to port a package to Ubuntu. I highly recommend it.

[1] http://mpr.hunterwittenborn.com/

Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#77

Post by iggldiggl »

vurpo wrote: post #46
spaniard89277 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snap gives all kind of headaches. I remember trying VSCode and I had problems working with files normally. I asked for help and I got quite a bit of backlash because I didn't wan't to deal with another layer of configuring a system just to access to my local files, and even after that you won't get the same experience. But apparently I'm some bastard n00b that does not care about security enough! Can you imagine tryi…

I don't know what kind of hoops Snap require to access files. Flatpak, however, has a pretty simple system for a fully sandboxed app to open a file or a directory: it just opens a file or directory picker, you pick a file or directory, and the app gets access to that file or directory without getting access to anything outside what you picked. Behind the scenes this is done via the XDG Portal system, but that's irrel…

> Flatpak, however, has a pretty simple system for a fully sandboxed app to open a file or a directory: it just opens a file or directory picker, you pick a file or directory, and the app gets access to that file or directory without getting access to anything outside what you picked.

Unfortunately that still breaks any kind of multi-file format, where opening one file might implicitly require accessing additional other files, and in some cases those additional files might even be distributed all over the directory hierarchy.

Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#78

Post by jckahn »

I get the hate against snaps. I tried really hard to give them a chance, but in my experience it’s a generally poor user experience. What I don’t get is why people feel like they need to leave Ubuntu because of it. Flatpak et al. work just as well on Ubuntu as anything else. Simply not using snaps on Ubuntu seems like a simpler solution than abandoning the distro altogether (assuming you don’t distro hop for fun).

Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#79

Post by antpls »

jeffparsons wrote: post #13

I've been hearing good things about modern Fedora as an alternative "boring" operating system. Maybe now is the time to make the switch.

Question regarding Fedora : I tried it in a docker environment. During some googling to troubleshoot issues, several results were found on the Red Hat commercial support website (so, not accessible). I'm afraid that a good part of advanced/niche documentations and knowledge base for troubleshooting is behind Red Hat commercial support. Is that the case in practice?

Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#80

Post by antpls »

compsciphd wrote: post #23

I'll take a counter approach. it makes sense to install firefox via snap. firefox breaks if you overwrite its files. therefore installing "normall" via dpkg is bad while firefox is in use (especially on a multi user system). running via a container ensures that the existing running processes don't break while allowing you to upgrade and have any new instance get the new version. there are reasons to dislike snap, but…

Same, I have been using snap to run Firefox and Chromium for about more than a year (personal usage, not professional), and rarely had issues. I had one issue regarding a feature like WebGL or a file picker, but it was solved after 5 minutes of googling, and it was about running a single command line to give more permissions to the snap package. This way of distribution works quite well for big applications with many dependencies that you want to be automatically updated without fear of breaking some shared libraries.

I also feels more confident trying new applications with snap. I know I can easily install different versions and uninstall them without breaking the system.

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